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Athlete Update: Sandman Results 2011, Vineman 70.3 and More.

Steve Yatson 3rd over the line at Sandman Triathlon

Steve H at Vineman 70.3

Heather at Santa Cruz Dip and Dash

Lots of great results for TriCoachMartin athletes as summer heats up. Steve Yatson finished 3rd overall (pending official results) in the Sandman Triathlon in Aptos on the weekend. A great tune up before his main goal the USAT Sprint Nationals coming up in Vermont. Fierce rivals Heather Rozario and Heidi Boynton raced in the Dip and Dash aquathlon (results) finishing 2nd and 4th in their age groups. Steve Hoofring scored a 20 min PR at the Vineman 70.3 and followed up the next weekend with a PR for 5K. Heather and Steve H are preparing for Ironman Arizona in November. Find out more about becoming a TriCoachMartin athlete here.

ASEA - How To Identify A Nutritional Scam

I received an email yesterday on the latest wonder product which will increase my endurance by 10-12% and help me recover in half the time!

Here's my one minute bullsh*t test for any nutritional product you might hear about so you can get on with your day and concentrate your time and money on what will really help you go faster. Hiring me as your coach. LOL.

1. Was the research on the product sourced from a Scientific Journal? You should be able to scroll to the bottom of the article and see numbered references to publications supporting the claims. Names like Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, The American Journal of Sports Medicine etc.

2. Testimonials are worthless. Endurance athletes are poorly paid and who can blame them for putting their name to anything if it's worth a few bucks. It's an extra warning sign if you've never heard of any of them (see video). Shame on the coaches who appeared in this.



3. With the rate at which information is shared in this day and age don't you think you would've heard about it already? If the first I'm hearing about it is from a personal email farmed off my website there's something fishy going on. Subscribe to a couple of reputable websites and blogs like the Sports Scientists and The New York Times Well Blog and I promise you won't miss out on the latest silver bullet (if it ever materializes)

In the meantime. Go out and get some exercise. It may increase your endurance by 10-12%...

The 90s Diet - Cottage Cheese

The 90s Diet is an anti-revolutionary new diet developed by Australian triathlon coach, Martin Spierings and Canadian professor and former Olympic hopeful, Matt Taddy. It is based on the assumption that ALL current diets are fads and pretty soon we'll be back to eating what was cool in the 90s. This blog will release some of the diet's foundations as a teaser for the book, which will be available on amazon.com and as an e-book in early 2012.


Cheese was largely demonized in the 90s due to its high fat content with one exception. Cottage cheese. Which, let's face it, doesn't much taste like cheese anyways. Cottage cheese does, however, taste lovely with fresh fruit. It was also consumed on crackers, particularly the brand Ryvita, which was known as a particularly healthy type of cracker you didn't need to feel to guilty about eating. Dave Scott, 8-time Ironman champion, reportedly rinsed his cottage cheese to remove the excess fat.

Cottage Cheese. Popular with elite athletes in the 90s.

What do you think of cottage cheese? Do you have any other foods that helped you dominate in the 90s before you got slow, fat, old and injured?

Review of Strava Application for Android

Long gone are the days I used a cyclo computer to track my miles on the bike. Now I turn my phone on, tap start, throw it in the back of my cycling jersey and download the distance and map when I get home. Previously, I've tried the Google Tracks and MapMyRide.com Apps. Both work fine but I found both a little clumsy to download, access and view after the ride. Google Tracks requires you to go into a Google Docs spreadsheet and click a link. MapMyRide.com is O.K. but the website riddled with ads and sometimes hard to load and scroll around. 

Android Strava interface

So, I recently tried the new free Strava App for Android on suggestion from a friend. He'd being bugging me about the site for a while but until now it hadn't been available on my phone.  I went for a ride on a busy Lakefront Bike Path in Chicago and it seemed to work fine. As good as the other apps I'd tried. The interface was clean and it tracked my ride continuously. 

Social Racing - ranking for a Strava "segment"

The real surprise was when I examined the ride online when I got home. I had unwittingly been involved in a competitive social time trial. When I clicked on the “Climb” tab (a misnomer in Chicago) it showed that I'd got the 8^th best time for an eight mile stretch I'd ridden between Grant Park and Jackson Park - what the app calls a segment. Very cool. Strava gives cyclists jsut opportunity to map out a popular section of road and anyone logging into Strava can ride over it and compete for the fastest time. You can bet I'll be out there on a quieter day to see if I can climb up the rankings. If you have an Android phone go to Marketplace, download Strava and try it out for yourself. More info at their website.

Cycling in Chicago - Lake Shore Drive Review

Took my first Windy City expedition on the 20 mile stretch of bike path along the lake known as the Lake Shore Drive bike path. I anticipated it would be a casual ride, as most bike path rides are forced to be, and I made sure I got out nice and early at 7:00am. I was surprised that there are actually a few sections that you can put some effort out, especially if you have the wind in your face, which I did going in the northerly direction. Mostly runners are pretty good at staying to the right at that time of morning but is definitely already busy especially the Northern section. So it seems like it’s best to hit that section first and leave the South for the last half. I saw a dozen or so, presumably triathletes, who were brave enough to get on their aero bars. Anyways, it was a fun ride for someone who hadn’t ridden much and there weren’t as many major road crossing as I’d expected. If you can get out early it looks a good option for an early morning recovery ride or a change of pace from the road madness. Be interested to know how the local triathletes use this stretch.

Chip Time or Clock Time?

One of my pet peeves is final placings in races being determined from what is known as chip time. With the majority of running races using electronic timing now it is possible for organizers to provide you with the time from when you cross the start line to when you cross the finish line. Nothing wrong with that. Nice to know. What gets up my goat is when it is used to determine your final position in the race. A race should be, by definition, to the finish line (aka clock time). Who can get to the finish line first after the gun goes off, right? Take the following example from the Oakland Half Marathon.

Gaylia, who happens to be one of my athletes (adding further fuel to my fire!) finishes 14th but crosses the line in front of both ladies who finished 11th and 12th. Imagine the possible scenario where she ran with these ladies for last 8 miles only to put in a massive effort in the last mile to kick past them and climb up the overall standings only to go home to her computer and find she'd been placed behind them. Disappointing, no?

How far can you take this? Can you start the race a half an hour after the race starts and run it by yourself away from the stresses of competition? I'm not asserting that chip time shouldn't be published or even claimed as your personal record but it shouldn't be used to rank athletes. When I bought this up with the race organizers of Oakland I was told it was "industry standard". Presumably standards can be changed if they don't make sense.

If there are congestion problems at the big races it's the event directors responsibility to organize corrals with seeded runners up the front. It would be a small extra cost to collect PRs off athletes wishing to start up near the front. This would improve congestion for everyone, not just up front. No beginner wants someone blasting past them at the start.

Protect the sanctity of the finish line!